September, 2006
Violinist Pags in concert
In the Ministry of Musicality, an online community of poet-musicians we have been interviewing our circle members to learn more about what they play and the music they love. So far we have interviewed Coco, Robbi, and Al. I thought we should go on with our interesting conversations, this time with Pags.
Okay, everyone can leave questions for her to answer!
Pags, here's a beginning:
1. How did music come into your life?
2. How has it developed?
3. What instruments do you play?
4. What music do you love to play?
5. How about listening?
6. Has the ministry of musicality influenced your listening, playing or
knowledge of music you might not have known about otherwise?
7. Where and with whom do you perform?
Róbbi Skæra:
1. Do you have any recordings ov you playing either as part ov an ensemble, or solo?
2. If you had to choose between musick and yuor favourite food, which would it be?
3. What's your opinion on thee electronics/DJ scene, whereby people with absolutely no musical talent, nor interest in neither poetry nor musick can successfully string together some predictable beats, unimaginative chord progressions and clichéd, aggressive words, and actually get paid as a professional musician and performer?
Pags:
What fun! I hope you all have a long attention span here
1. How did music come into your life?
Its probably more accurate to say I came into a life of music for it was all around me before I was born. Some of my earliest memories involve music
- my dad singing songs by making up words to fit nursery rhyme tunes, or singing the words of one nursery rhyme to the tune of another
- my mum playing the songs without words on the piano - lots of Schuman, some Brahms
- Hymns and chanted psalms at church (do any churches still do that now?)
- being in a Welsh church where the hymn books were annotated with musical notation even though they were only word books; a church where singing in good 4-part harmony was the norm
- Going to sunday school for the first time and singing about birds (Tell me the stories of Jesus, verse 2 or 3 I think)
- Music on the BBC Third programme (now BBC Radio three) on the radio all the time - no pop music at all. When my classmates at school were raving about Gary Glitter I had no idea at all who he was. I'd never heard of him.
- Going to listen to Fairy Engineering Brass Band
- folk dancing classes at school with music blaring from the school radio
- the teacher who decided he would teach a whole class of working class children how to play the recorder, and DID
2. How has it developed?
Very haphazardly! The recorder was a cheap instrument though it was expensive to my parents to buy, end eventually someone pinched it from me at school. Hymn singing was just there, two or three times every Sunday. Secondary school was a turning point I suspect. (Year 8, age 11-12)
There I joined the school choir, tried to learn to play the piano and then discovered the violin. I had a friend who used to vanish one lunchtime a week so eventually I wanted to find out what she was doing. She was learning the violin with one of the music teachers. I was offered a school instrument and spent the first lesson just practicing holding it. I didn't mind a bit because the alternative was playing out and as I tended to be bullied I preferred to stand with a violin sagging under my chin! It was another month or more before my parents found out I was having lessons, and then only because I was encouraged to take it home to practice.
At school I also sang in school operas - we did a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan's, played in the orchestra, and a memorable highlight was singing in a performance of the messiah. The sound of a powerful choir singing quietly still sends shivers down my spine.
After I left school I gave up childish things including music, only coming back to it 8 or 9 years later. My children were young and I needed to find a way to express me. (Many parents will resonate with that idea) and the chance for violin lessons came up. That led to my playing in amateur orchestras which in turn dramatically improved my sight reading and listening abilities. From then I have played in amateur orchestras.
Another step was my children going to school. I discovered that the peripatetic music lessons provided by the schools service were to be discontinued so for some years I voluntarily taught violin, recorder, keyboard and piano to enthusiastic youngsters. Some times I learned a lesson one week to be able to teach it the next week. Some of the children survived to tell the tale and still play!! An odd way for me to develop musicality but some children passed exams - grade 4 was the highest I taught.
3. What instruments do you play?
These days - Violin and recorder. I have a viola and cello, piano, harmonium and keyboard that get played from time to time, but only for personal pleasure. I also had a go at guitar and ukelele but no longer have the instruments.
4. What music do you love to play?
I'm really not a solo player but I most enjoy playing in small groups rather than full symphony orchestras (though I do both). If I had to state absolute favourite music then it would have to be the double violin concertos - both Bach's and the slightly lesser known one by Vivaldi. (Oh that glorious second violin part in the Vivaldi!). I suspect peole think of me as a baroque player and I love Bach, vivaldi, Handel and so on. But I love playing Bartok and other modern composers too. And then there's the pastiche on Eine Kleine Nacht Music by professor Teddy Bor - great fun
I suppose I like playing any music for a small group that allows all the players to be musicians (no Strauss waltzes for me - have you ever spent an evening playing the cha cha bits of oom-cha-cha, oom-cha-cha?) And I like playing music that is linear rather than chordal: the way parts wind round each other or play in countepoint.
5. How about listening?
In truth I have great difficulty listening to music. I find I have to actively listen and that is very tiring. Often I hear music on the radio and the whole orchestra sounds out of tune and I find that intollerable. (I think its that in UK we tune to A at 440 bpm but eg in US A is pitched at 444 bpm). I am incapable of having music in the background. My husband like to have the radio on all night. If he leaves it on a music channel it wakes me up!
But I DO listen to music.
Recently I have discovered Russian orthodox chant. That is music I can become so absorbed with that time and self vanish. I listen to a lot of soloists too. Vaughan Williams' lark ascending - yum. the Paganini caprices, John tavener's the protecting Veil - WOW! amazing modern music. Organ music too. Saint Saen's Organ concerto - officianados are a bit sniffy about saint saens but I adore that piece. The beethoven quartets - can be hard listening but incredible writing for all the instruments...
6. Has the ministry of musicality influenced your listening, playing or
knowledge of music you might not have known about otherwise?
Oddly, I don't think it has so far, except that I have listened to Robbi's work and I ferreted about on the internet to find out more about rennaisnace flute music.
The above gives the impression that I'm a classical buff, but I go to the odd rock gig (local upcoming bands), enjoy 70s and 80s pop, hoover the house to Simply Red or Dido and listen to arabic music on a CD I brought back from Tunisia.
7. Where and with whom do you perform?
I perform with Hyde Festival orchestra around the Hyde area (near Manchester in UK) mostly in loca church halls, but we have played in Tameside Theater, Victoria Park and various residential homes too.
I have begun to perform with Salford Symphony Orchestra too. They hold concerts in Salford university.
Oh and sing children's songs and nursery rhymes to my granddaughter too.
And of course I still sing in church, but that's not performing
Kath says:
Fascinating, Pags.
I know next you will answer Robbi, and then--
8. do you play Baroque Violin
or Modern or both?
Could you play with a baroque flute for instance?
(Rick does have some with 440 joints.)
9. a) Do you still love Gilbert and Sullivan? b) do you perform with any groups doing that? c) Have you seen Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstadt? (I love that...there is a live Braodway theater Archive version, and then several years later a film. Linda's father loved Gilbert and Sullivan and sang it around the house...I remember hearing her say in a interview--that he would have been so proud of her playing Maybelle, but he died before that.)
10. Do you still sing other than church choir, etc?
Jersey Daniel Gibson:
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Cal Stilwell (CaLokie:
I wondered with Patty Page, "How much was that dog in the window?"
I "Cried" with Johnny Ray and Depp
Peggy Lee gave a "Fever"
I rocked around the clock with Bill Haley
and in a "Jailhouse" with Elvis
but didn't step on Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes"
Me and Little Richard ducked behind the alley with "Long tall Salley"
I got my thrill on "Blueberry Hill" with Fats Domino"
I traveled in a "Yellow Submarine" with the Beatles
I got lost in a "Purple Haze" with Jimi Hendrix
I fell "to pieces" everytime I heard Patsy Cline sing
All I wanted with Aretha and Rodney was a little "Respect"
I could get no satisfaction with Mick Jagger
but along came Davis with trumpet jubilee putting me "Miles Ahead"
and Coltrane with soprano sax psalm, filling me with a "Love Supreme"
Pags answers Robbi:
1. Do you have any recordings ov you playing either as part ov an ensemble, or solo?
I WAS going to say no to this. Then I suddenly remembered - about 10 or so years ago a church group wrote and produced a christian musical. My brother and I played fiddle for it and the event was recorded at a small studio in Manchester. Somewhere I have a cassette tape of it, but as I don't own copyright I can'treally put it online, even though it was pretty good. Makes me sound like I can actually play!!
2. If you had to choose between musick and yuor favourite food, which would it be?
No contest. Music every time. There have been countless rushed or missed meals so I could get to a rehersal or go shopping for music in my lunch break.
3. What's your opinion on thee electronics/DJ scene, whereby people with absolutely no musical talent, nor interest in neither poetry nor musick can successfully string together some predictable beats, unimaginative chord progressions and clichéd, aggressive words, and actually get paid as a professional musician and performer?
Great question Robbi. Live and let live. But I think your question is flawed - if they are doing that then they have SOME interest in music, even if its not the same as mine or yours.
I feel about it much the same as I feel about writers. There are journalists who hate what they do but still get paid. I am told that about 50% volume of all novels bought come under the heading of romantic fiction. Of these a sizable proportion are Mills and Boon / Sillouette type throw-away romances. Barbara Cartland could churn the things out in 4 days I believe. The books are all written to a formula so strict that you could write a computer programme to do it. Indeed softwear is out here already that enables you to write with the minimum of creative ability. It's bread-and-butter writing. Pays the bills. I could do it, so could anyone on this site with a very little application. Some of us choose not to do so.
So what? That sort of writing (music or literature) has its moment and is gone. In 50 years will anyone remember most of the writers?
But writing to a formula has its place. Dickens did it and it worked. The Beetles started out with the three chord trick and a couple of minor chords but their talent shone through the lack of skill and so the ability grew. It was a good place to start and they moved on.
Pags, quoting CaLokie:
"I wondered with Patty Page, "How much was that dog in the window?"
£10 was what we paid to take him home. He was a dinky little handful of black fur with just a little white, and grew into a Welsh Collie. We called him Sebastian. When Seb was first taken out for a walk he stepped on a nettle. His pads were so tender that he whined for ages because it hurt him, so he had to be carried home. That was 13 years ago. Last Saturday he was put to sleep because he had a brain tumour that caused him to have several fits every day and it could not be controlled. We will bring him home for the final time some time next week, after he has been cremated. We are still awaiting the bill from the vets and the animal hospital so the final cost cannot yet be counted.
(PS Actually this is all true.)
Pags answers Kath:
8. do you play Baroque Violin
or Modern or both?
I have 3 violins - one is what might be called a modern baroque violin dating from the early 1800s. Sadly at the moment it is unplayable because of a split which developed some time ago and I havn't yet been able to afford to have the repair done. It is slightly smaller than a modern violin and plays best with lower tension, preferably gut or wound gut strings. I suspect what helped damage it was trying out thomastik high tension strings... Sadly I don't have a baroque bow. However, looking on ebay a modern copy would be reasonably affordable and I am seriously considering whether to get one.
The second violin I have is a 6-year old Gliga - a machine made, hand finished Rumanian violin which sounds better than its cost would suggest. It is the violin I currently play on using wound perlon strings for the mellow sound. (I don't like the over bright, often harsh sound that metal strings give). The problem (to some) is that it is a quiet violin and difficult to play well, but is capable of a wonderful sound. I gur=ess its still being played in really. Another 100 years should make it a pretty decent instrument!
The third violin is an electric one. Sadly I have no amp to play it through - a bit of a drawback really
Could you play with a baroque flute for instance?
So, on my oldest instrument I reckon I could with the right bow. The Gligga probably has the right sound and again would be a good substitute for the real thing.
(Rick does have some with 440 joints.).
That sounds excessive - Are you sure that's not a snake, or possibly a serpant?
9. a) Do you still love Gilbert and Sullivan?
I haven't watched anything live recently - there seems to be a lack of local performances locally. When the D'oly Carte used to tour I would catch 2 or 3 different ones in Manchester. I think it has rather gone out of fashion... But I love the silliness of the plots, the clever writing and the toe-tapping music. We have a medly that Hyde Festival Orchestra plays sometimes.
b) do you perform with any groups doing that?
I haven't performed in light opera or musicals since I left school really, though I played in the band for an amateur operatic society a good while ago. I'd love to get back into that! As i mentioned above, Gilbers and SAullivan havn't been performed much locally for the last 20 years or so.
c) Have you seen Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstadt?
No - i will have to look out for it!
10. Do you still sing other than church choir, etc?
Sadly, no. I would like to but there are only a limited number of evenings in the week and my family like me to be home for some of them! Actually, that I have becom very prone to chest infections and bronchitis following every cold I catch means that I have been unable to sing well very much at all in the last few years.
A couple of years ago I sang a solo as an interlude in one of the orchestra's concerts - "To the queen of hearts is the ace of sorrows" - a very old song made poular in 1960s(?) by Joan Baez. Its a lovely song, particularly sung with a sensitive accompanist.
I used the words of that song to create a haibun-like piece of writing. I envisaged it being performed by a narrator and singer, but it hasn't happened yet...
Kath:
Great answers Pags, I really enjoyed your violin details! Have you looked at Rick's historical flute website:
http://www.oldflutes.com
All the examples are from his flute collection and there is a lot of historical writing and documenting he has done there. You'll get more of an idea of his flutes there.... He has over 150 original flutes from Baroque to early 20th century, most are 19th century. Plus about 60 copies of original intruments from Renaissance to Baroque. When he gives a "Flute Presentation" he talks about the evolutions and revolutions in the history of the flute, and plays excerpts from pieces that each flute would have been played. The flutes played at the time the music was composed. He will be doing one for a local college in November and one for the Southern California Early Music Society. He ocassionally does it when we travel to a math conference --a math lecture AND a musical one. It is all fascinating.
My son grew up playing Baroque Violin. Right now he is in San Diego and he takes lessons from someone who also plays in the Academy of Ancient Music.
****I'd like to know more about the haibun piece you created. What is it like?
****Here in California there are performances of Gilbert and Sullivan,
I have not gone to them yet, as they are not right nearby, but there is a lot of interest. We have many G&S videos and dvd's that I got on Ebay because we wanted to see them all!
Al Santos:
ow, with you guys all playing these cool instruments, i feel cowed and awed to be in your presence!
i'm stunned beyond belief!
(makes the stuff lthat i do just seem like messing about )
"Punk" Pags discusses the 1812 overture and cows with Al and Jersey
Pags answers Jersey:
"waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
This is very interesting. What I need to know is, can you do it to order, repeatedly? If so we might be able to make use of you for the chamber version of the 1812 overture. It's a bit hard to get hold of cannons, but head explosions would be a perfect scaled down version, I feel.
Come on, the rest of you - bring on more questions. I'm twiddling my thumbs here!
Pags: regarding Kath's comments:
Have you looked at Rick's historical flute website:
http://www.oldflutes.com
I have indeed, though it was some time ago so I'll go and look again right now. The information of trills and appogiaturas is interesting. I was taught that what Rick described is how one should play older music, through perhaps to early classical but that later music should be played as is more commonly taught ie trilling from the main note and no turn at the end, a short (no time) appoggiatura rather than a measured time one.
When he gives a "Flute Presentation" he talks about the evolutions and revolutions in the history of the flute, and plays excerpts from pieces that each flute would have been played. The flutes played at the time the music was composed. He will be doing one for a local college in November and one for the Southern California Early Music Society.
What a pity that we are opposite sides of the pond It would be really interesting to hear and see this
****I'd like to know more about the haibun piece you created. What is it like?
Its most like a short story punctuated with verses from a song really... I've posted it below for you to see/read.
We have many G&S videos and dvd's that I got on Ebay because we wanted to see them all!
What WOULD we do without ebay?
Kath:
actually it just may happen that Rick would give a flute presentation on your side of the pond sometime.... the problem though, is transporting a selection of 20 flutes to use for demonstration...(the airlines nightmare right now)!
Pags:
If that happens any time, you MUST let me know, OK?
Kath:
Of course I will, you'll be the first to know. Actually I will let you know whenever we come in your direction. Rick spent a year in London 20 years ago though, he studied with flutist Stephen Preston.
And he's come for math lectures too, but all before ME. I've never been there. He wants to show me. Our usual stopovers have been Paris and Amsterdam. I hope we come there. Also I want a Robbi-Starla-Bryn-Pags-Kath and Rick musicality celebration-- and I want Alessandra to fly in to greet us from Italy... who else? I know I am asking for too much...but who knows!?!
Pags answers AL:
"Al Santos Wrote:
wow, with you guys all playing these cool instruments, i feel cowed and awed to be in your presence! i'm stunned beyond belief! (makes the stuff lthat i do just seem like messing about)"
Nah. Its all those instruments which demonstrates that what I do is just messing about. How could anyone master all of them in one lifetime? Like a duck, I'm just a musical dabbler I'm afraid.
Pags answers Kath
Have you looked at Rick's historical flute website:
http://www.oldflutes.com
I have indeed, though it was some time ago so I'll go and look again right now. The information of trills and appogiaturas is interesting. I was taught that what Rick described is how one should play older music, through perhaps to early classical but that later music should be played as is more commonly taught ie trilling from the main note and no turn at the end, a short (no time) appoggiatura rather than a measured time one.
When he gives a "Flute Presentation" he talks about the evolutions and revolutions in the history of the flute, and plays excerpts from pieces that each flute would have been played. The flutes played at the time the music was composed. He will be doing one for a local college in November and one for the Southern California Early Music Society.
What a pity that we are opposite sides of the pond It would be really interesting to hear and see this
****I'd like to know more about the haibun piece you created. What is it like?
Its most like a short story punctuated with verses from a song really... I've posted it below for you to see/read.
We have many G&S videos and dvd's that I got on Ebay because we wanted to see them all!
What WOULD we do without ebay?
Pags:
The Queen of Hearts, The Ace of Sorrows
She sits by the window at a small table, her spinning finished for the day. Shaking back her auburn hair she shuffles a deck of worn playing cards. As the light fades she takes a card and turns it over. She gazes at it a long time. It is the Queen of hearts, bringer of love. She smiles.
Glancing through the window she sees a young man in the courtyard below. His doublet is patched and frayed, his hose far too short. He waves, shouts something she can't quite hear. Nevertheless she smiles to him, then blushes. Turning back to the pack she shuffles it again, again draws out a card. Silently she begins to weep. The Ace of spades, bringer of sorrow and death lies before her on the table.
"To the Queen of hearts
is the Ace of sorrows
He's here today,
he's gone tomorrow.
Young men are plenty
but sweethearts few.
If my love leaves me,
what will I do?"
"Mama," her daughter asks, pointing though the casement, "What's that?" She looks to the cairn in the valley. "That?" she says, sweeping the tiny child into her arms, "They say there's where the young prince was buried with all his treasure."
Later, her daughter asleep at last, she lays cards out on the kitchen table. The knave of diamonds - the young prince's card and the ten of diamonds - bringer of modest wealth. Finally, she turns over the ace of spades, the card she drew from the seer's pack the night before cavaliers came for her husband.
She sighs, and is silent a long time. When she moves it is to light a candle fragranced with lavender, said to soothe sorrow and bring peace.
"Had I the store
in yonder mountain
With gold and silver
there for counting,
I could not count
for thought of thee,
my eyes so full
I could not see"
Once the house is quiet she slips from her bed. Taking a small key from the ribbon about her neck she opens the small mahogany casket wherein she keeps her most precious treasures.
A worn pack of cards lies beside a single sheet of folded paper covered in his beloved handwriting. She takes the paper, reads and re-reads it, smiling gently as she does so. Folding it carefully she replaces it, taking out the tiny, tissue wrapped parcel hidden beneath. Opening it she places the ring encrusted with garnets and diamonds on the ring finger of her left hand.
She thinks of the promise he made to her. "I will write to you when I have made my fortune in Virginia, so that you may join me there". She wonders how soon that will be. She will consult her cards.
She selects a card, turns it over. It is the Ace of Spades. Furious, she flings the cards from her, hot tears starting to her eyes. What would the cards know after all? Hasn't Victoria, the new queen said that such things are superstition and not to be countenanced by modern young ladies?
"I love my Father
I love my Mother
I love my sister
I love my brother
I love my friends
and family too,
but I'd leave them all
and go with you"
It is late at night yet she cannot sleep. Arthritis in her spine will not allow her to get comfortable. Turning the radio on she searches for classical music, and finding the Bach double violin concerto, leans back to listen to the melodies inextricably entwine.
As the music ends, she reaches for her old pack of cards, from habit shuffling them and whispering a secret wish. She draws forth a card. It is the Queen of Hearts, bringer of love. She smiles, remembering. In her mind's eye she sees a young man in doublet and hose. That could not have been, she thinks. Her mind plays strange fancies sometimes.
Shuffling again she draws forth a second card. It is the Ace of Spades, bringer of death. Again she smiles. She is old enough now to know that that death may come as a friend, that there are many worse things.
She hears footsteps on the stairs yet she is not afraid. She recognises that tread though she has not heard it for sixty or more years. A young man with red hair and blue eyes stands in her bedroom doorway. She runs to him, pain forgotten, takes his hand, looks up into his face and accepts his kisses. He strokes her long auburn curls.
"To the Queen of hearts
is the Ace of sorrows
He's here today,
he's gone tomorrow.
Young men are plenty
but sweethearts few.
If my love leaves me,
what will I do?"
It is morning. They come quietly, half knowing, a little afraid of what they will find. The lavender candle burns low. She is in bed, her white hair wispy on the pillows.
Playing cards are scattered about the counterpane and on the floor. On her bedside table are an old letter and a rather old fashioned gold ring set with garnets and diamonds. In her cold, stiffening fingers are two playing cards.
Standing by her bed, they are awed. Her face shows no trace of pain, but there is tremendous love. She is smiling. 'She does not look 94,' they say wonderingly.
One snuffs out the candle. A thin trail of smoke meanders upwards.
15th April 2001
(Note - the traditional song quoted is believed to be at least 500 years old but still delights audiences today. This story is expanded from my short introduction to the song.)
Kath asks:
What is the tune of the song...?
It is beautiful, this whole
scene... the mood---and the words you wrote.
You should perform it.
Or have someone do it!
You could at least record it, and make a cd.
Do you envision it actually acted out?
It is cinematic.
Pags answers Kath:
What is the tune of the song...?
you can find it, though a little different from how I sing it (that first B should really be a G and the rhythm is a bit strange and lumpy) , at
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiQUNHEAR...HEART.html
I have attached the music: you'll need to click on the thumbnail to read it though
A fragment of Joan Baez's version is available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve...30-0745454
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve...30-0745454
It is beautiful, this whole
scene... the mood---and the words you wrote.
Thank you
You should perform it.
Or have someone do it!
You could at least record it, and make a cd.
I would certainly like someone with ability to do so. It has never been performed, or recorded.
Do you envision it actually acted out?
It is cinematic.
I had never thought of it in that way but I guess it might make a 5-minute short!
NEW QUESTIONS, this interview ---soon to be continued!
Shannon Vasquez asks:
i have some questions! i'm sorry if these are lame, but they are what i thought of that haven't (i don't think) been asked
1. how long did it take you to learn how to sight read/read notes well. i ask b/c i played piano for a few years and i never go the hang of it. do you think you are just naturally musically inclinced, and you picked up on it easily because of that, or was there a bit of a struggle?
2. it there any kind of specific "method" you were taught when learning the violin? my sis plays, and she was taught by the "suzuki" method, are you familiar with it? thoughts?
3. have you ever been to any live shows/cocerts and, if so, which one(s), and did it affect you/your music in any way?
4. have you ever composed music on the piano/violin, and is that anything you're interested in, in general?
